French telecom Iliad abandons plans to acquire T-Mobile

Ownership of the nation’s fourth largest wireless carrier won’t be changing hands anytime soon as French telecommunications company Iliad has abandoned its pursuit of T-Mobile.

In a press release on the matter, the Iliad Group said it has put an end to its project of acquiring T-Mobile because parent company Deutsche Telekom and select board members of T-Mobile US have refused to entertain their latest offer.

For those not up to speed, Iliad first expressed interest in purchasing the Uncarrier this past July. T-Mobile, however, rejected their offer to buy a 56.6 percent stake in the company. Determined to make a deal, Iliad regrouped and put a second offer on the table which involved more cash and a larger stake.

Specifically, Iliad’s second and final offer was for 67 percent of the company at around $36 per share. That represents a sizable premium over the $27.05 that T-Mobile is trading at as of writing but apparently it still wasn’t enough for Deutsche Telekom to consider.

Iliad said they had the ambition to accelerate T-Mobile’s transformation, notably by saving more than $2 billion in annual costs which would have created significant value for both Iliad’s and T-Mobile’s shareholders.

Most would agree that Deutsche Telekom has been looking to offload T-Mobile for quite some time but given the company’s renewed momentum and subscriber growth under outspoken CEO John Legere, that may no longer be the case.